RT: April 6, 2014

Former British PM Tony Blair was fully informed “every step of the way” about details of the CIA’s secret interrogation program, developed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and “knew about everything” including torture, states a new report.

Blair and then-foreign secretary Jack Straw were repeatedly briefed by MI6 and took an ‘active interest’ in the program, according to an anonymous security source who spoke to the Telegraph.

The source said it was laughable to suggest any approval for UK security service cooperation with the CIA program was only approved by Straw.

“The politicians took a very active interest indeed. They wanted to know everything. The Americans passed over the legal opinions saying that this was now ‘legal,’ and our politicians were aware of what was going on at the highest possible level,” the source said.

“The politicians knew in detail about everything – the torture and the rendition. They could have said [to M16] ‘stop it, do not get involved’, but at no time did they,” they added, appearing to contradict numerous previous statements made by UK officials.

After 9/11, the CIA launched its rendition program, involving global kidnap, detention and torture operations. It emerged at the beginning of 2013 that at least 54 countries – many European – had acted in cooperation with the US and several of them were European.

(Read the full article at RT)

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